Brian Charlesworth facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Brian Charlesworth
FRSE, FRS
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| Born |
Brian Charlesworth
29 April 1945 |
| Citizenship | British |
| Alma mater | University of Cambridge (BA, PhD) |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Children | 1 daughter |
| Awards |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Evolutionary biology |
| Institutions |
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| Thesis | Genetic variation in viability in Drosophila melanogaster (1968) |
| Doctoral students | Michael R. Rose |
| Other notable students | Gilean McVean (postdoc) |
Brian Charlesworth is a British scientist born on April 29, 1945. He is an evolutionary biologist, which means he studies how living things change over many generations. He works at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. He is also an editor for a science magazine called Biology Letters. Since 1997, he has been a special professor at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology in Edinburgh. He is married to another evolutionary biologist, Deborah Charlesworth.
Contents
Becoming a Scientist
Early Studies
Brian Charlesworth went to Cambridge University. He studied science, focusing on biology. He earned his first degree there.
Advanced Degrees
In 1969, he earned his PhD in genetics. For his PhD, he studied how genetic variation affects the survival of fruit flies. The scientific name for this fruit fly is Drosophila melanogaster.
His Career Journey
Working at Universities
After getting his PhD, Brian Charlesworth did more research. He worked at several universities. These included the University of Chicago and the University of Liverpool. From 1974 to 1982, he worked at the University of Sussex. There, he worked with another famous scientist, John Maynard Smith.
Professor of Ecology
He returned to the University of Chicago in 1985. He became a professor there. He taught about ecology (how living things interact with their environment) and evolution. In 1997, he moved to Edinburgh, Scotland.
What Brian Charlesworth Studied
Understanding Evolution
Brian Charlesworth has spent a lot of time studying how the genetic information of living things changes over time. He often uses the fruit fly as a model to understand these changes.
Key Research Areas
He has also done important work on several other topics. These include:
- How living things age.
- How genetic recombination (the mixing of genetic material) evolves.
- How sex chromosomes (which determine if an animal is male or female) evolve.
Honoring His Work
In April 2010, a special issue of the science magazine Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B was published. It was dedicated to Brian Charlesworth. This honored his important contributions to the field of population genetics. This field studies how genes change within groups of living things.
Awards and Recognition
Royal Society Fellow
Brian Charlesworth has received many awards for his scientific work. In 1991, he was chosen as a Fellow of the Royal Society. This is a very high honor for scientists in the UK.
Prestigious Medals
He won the Darwin Medal in 2000. In 2006, he received the Frink Medal from the Zoological Society of London. He was also awarded the Darwin-Wallace Medal in 2010. This medal is given by the Linnean Society.
Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal
In 2015, the Genetics Society of America gave him the Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal. This award celebrates a scientist's entire career in genetics. It recognizes their amazing achievements in the field.
